Ages(For Lyn) Poem by Dónall Dempsey

She asks me
what it was like

When dinosaurs
were around

and was I not
scared.

“Oh..! ” I say
“I’m not that...old! ”

“Oh..? ” she says.

“How long ago
are you then? ”

I pause, &
hesitate:

as if I were
trying to add up

all the time
I’ve been.

“Oh...when I was your age
the earth was flat
& if your were to go

to the edge
of it

you could fall off
(& that was that)

off into empty
space
& drift all the way to the moon! ”

“Don’t be silly! ”
she says.

“Everyone knows
the earth is a balloon.

We did it in school
with Miss Lyons.”

And forgetting
the question

(of our respective ages)

she makes
another mudpie

from the grungy ground
& squashes it flat

as if she were a God
un-creating a Universe

that hadn’t
quite come out right.

“Well, it’s time
for tea! ”

she tells me

& takes my hand
in hers.

I follow her
lead

leaving a shattered
mud universe behind.